Policy Acknowledgements

Enterprise feature — requires the enterprise image and a license with the Policy acknowledgements entitlement. See Enterprise edition.

Some documents aren’t just good to read — people are required to read them: security policies, code-of-conduct updates, safety procedures. CompassDocs can ask every reader to confirm, and keep the record.

Requiring confirmation

On any published document, approvers and admins see a shield icon in the document’s action row — the Require read confirmation toggle (it highlights when active). Turn it on and:

• Every reader who can see the document gets a notice — “I’ve read and understood this” — at the top of the document until they confirm.
• Everyone with pending confirmations sees a reminder on their dashboard listing the documents waiting for them.
• Each confirmation is recorded with the person, timestamp, and IP, and also lands in the audit log.

Revisions ask again

An acknowledgement covers the revision that was on screen when the person confirmed. Any edit to the document resets everyone to pending — if the policy changed, everyone confirms the new text. The full history is kept: older confirmations remain in the record, tied to the revision they covered.

The compliance record

While confirmation is required, approvers see live progress in the document’s notice strip (“14/20 confirmed — view record”). The record page lists everyone expected to confirm — active accounts that can see the document’s space, so private spaces only count the granted groups — with their status and confirmation time, and an Export CSV button for auditors.

The central compliance portal

Compliance in the main navigation (from 0.50 — previously under Settings; old links redirect) rolls every policy into one portal — the place to run the whole acknowledgement program rather than checking documents one by one:

• KPIs across the workspace: policies requiring acknowledgement, overall compliance percentage, fully-compliant people, and outstanding acknowledgements.
• Policy progress — every ack-required document with a progress bar, its revision date, and when the last reminder went out. Expand a row to see exactly who has acknowledged and who’s still pending, and download the per-policy CSV.
• Request acknowledgement — pick any published document and click one button. The document starts requiring acknowledgement, and everyone who can see it gets a targeted dashboard notice and an email with a direct link.
• Remind — one click notifies only the people who still haven’t acknowledged. Reminders are rate-limited to one per policy per hour so nobody gets spammed, and the last-reminded time is stamped on the row.
• People view — each person’s required/acknowledged counts with a compliant/outstanding badge, so you can chase individuals, not just documents.
• Export CSV — the full portal-wide compliance matrix (policy × person with timestamps) for auditors.

Admins always see the portal. To delegate it — an HR or compliance manager who shouldn’t need full admin rights — grant the person or a group the Compliance section under Settings → Section access.

Acknowledgement requests and reminders are recorded in the audit log (ack.requested, ack.reminder_sent).

A deliberate exception: compliance emails ignore each person’s personal email-notification switch. An acknowledgement request is a workplace requirement, not a courtesy update — muting document chatter shouldn’t hide a policy you’re required to read. (The wording of these emails is editable under email templates.)

Notes

• Pairs well with space subscriptions: subscribers get an email when the policy is updated, and the banner asks them to re-confirm when they arrive.
• Confirmation is honest-read, not proof-of-comprehension — it records that the person saw and confirmed the document, which is what most compliance frameworks ask for.